FORLOH x TOOR Knives - Merlin Knife

[ForlohFamily]

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Lightweight & Packable Knife​

The Merlin is a new Signature Series collaboration blade from FORLOH and Toor Knives, an American-made premium knife brand.

The Merlin is a lightweight, packable blade with a gut hook, ideal for field dressing big game. Meant to serve as your primary “pack in, "pack out” utility" blade on your next hunt or backpacking excursion, it comes in feather light at just under 1.8 oz. The handle is skeletonized to reduce overall weight and comes wrapped in approximately 48.0” of utility paracord.

Control & Precision​

The blade bevel is ground from edge to spine, leaving us with a nice large cutting surface. The ridge of the knife comes standard with a 0.375” gut hook. The hollow shape of the gut hook easily gets caught behind the fur, allowing one to open the belly of the animal in one swift move. With an overall length of 8.25”, the Merlin is meant to tackle just about any outdoor task you can throw at it.

Each blade includes a low-profile Black KYDEX® sheath to reduce weight and minimize overall footprint.

https://forloh.com/products/forloh-merlin-knife

 

[TxLite]

I like the integrated guthook. Any plans to offer a version with actual handles? I never understood paracord on a hunting knife. It will just get nasty

 

[ForlohFamily]

I like the integrated guthook. Any plans to offer a version with actual handles? I never understood paracord on a hunting knife. It will just get nasty

Not for this collab, but potentially in the future.

https://forloh.com/pages/search-results-page?q=knife

 

[Ucsdryder]

Gut hook and lightweight packable knife don’t go together.

 

[Netherman]

Gut hook and lightweight packable knife don’t go together.

Gut hooks on knives are like that orange “butt out” tool. Everyone buys one and learns why they are dumb.

 

[TxLite]

Gut hooks on knives are like that orange “butt out” tool. Everyone buys one and learns why they are dumb.

Idk I use the shit out of a guthook for zipping through the hide without slicing up the meat. Different strokes maybe

 

[Ucsdryder]

Idk I use the shit out of a guthook for zipping through the hide without slicing up the meat. Different strokes maybe

Must be a different gut hook than my buddy tried to use. In my experience gut hooks aren’t zipping through elk hide.

 

[TxLite]

Must be a different gut hook than my buddy tried to use. In my experience gut hooks aren’t zipping through elk hide.

No experience there. Could be totally useless on elk. I’ve only used them on whitetail, hogs, and pronghorn

 

[Ucsdryder]

No experience there. Could be totally useless on elk. I’ve only used them on whitetail, hogs, and pronghorn

Yeah antelope and deer they’d probably be fine. But the whole backcountry ultra light thing….not many people chasing hogs and antelope. There’s a reason there’s not a single back country ultra light knife with a gut hook.

 

[TxLite]

Yeah antelope and deer they’d probably be fine. But the whole backcountry ultra light thing….not many people chasing hogs and antelope. There’s a reason there’s not a single back country ultra light knife with a gut hook.

That’s fair. I still don’t think they’re on the same level as the butthole remover

 

[Netherman]

That’s fair. I still don’t think they’re on the same level as the butthole remover

I guess that was a bit of a low blow. Nothing is as bad as that butthole tool. I've just found that gut hooks seem to get in the way for a lot of knife tasks and that I can do the job of a gut hook 90% as good using a canadian belt style blade or with a blade between two fingers (more belly makes this easier).

Similarly, I don't understand knives with a sharpened spine (Iron Will, KOA Yukon #1, etc). I like to get my finger just behind the tip along the spine when gutting/windpipe cutting and both a guthook and sharpened spine get in the way of that.